The buying power of same-sex partnered households is significant when compared to the average U.S. household, which offers considerable opportunities to manufacturers and retailers that are able to satisfy the need states of these consumers.

Nielsen information measuring the shopping trips and purchase behaviors of participating households shows that on any given shopping trip, same-sex partnered households spend at comparable rates to the average U.S. household ($50 average spend per trip vs. $46 average spend per trip for all U.S. households). But, same-sex partnered households make 16 percent more shopping trips than the average U.S. household over 52 weeks (173 average shopping trips vs. 149 average shopping trips for total U.S. households).

These additional shopping trips make for a marked difference in total spending. Among same-sex partnered households, average annual spending on consumer packaged goods (CPG) is 25 percent higher than that of the average U.S. household ($8,651 vs. $6,898). Within the LGBT community, male same-sex partnered households shop even more frequently than female same-sex households (182 trips vs. 163 trips), raising male same-sex household annual CPG spending to $8,943— nearly 30 percent higher than the average U.S. household.